Heineken will reduce CO2 emissions. This will be one of the largest heat storage facilities in the industry in the world.

The Central de Cervejas e Bebidas brewery and malthouse, owned by the Heineken Company in Portugal, will benefit from clean, emission-free steam. The project, a collaboration between Heineken, EDP, and Rondo Energy, represents Portugal's first major Heat-as-a-Service contract. It combines solar energy, heat storage, and electrification to decarbonize industrial processes.

One of the largest investments of this type by a beverage producer

The new warehouse will have a capacity of 100 MWh. It will be one of the largest thermal batteries in the beverage industry in the world . By comparison, the warehouse in Żarnowiec, which will be one of the largest in Europe, is expected to have a capacity of approximately 260 MWh.

The Rondo heat battery stores renewable electricity in the form of high-temperature heat, providing safe, continuous, zero-emission steam and eliminating the need for fossil fuel boilers. As part of the project, EDP will install a 7 MWp PV system on the brewery premises, which will power the Rondo battery. This, in turn, will provide steam for production processes.

Heineken will reduce greenhouse gas emissions

Thanks to the joint EDP and Rondo solution, the brewery will reduce CO₂ emissions without changing its production processes, as the steam supplied by the Rondo battery is identical to that generated from fossil fuels. The plant will reduce its natural gas consumption, avoiding an estimated 6,600 tons of CO₂ emissions per year.

The project is based on a model that can be replicated in other energy-intensive sectors. Sectors such as food and beverage, paper, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals could benefit from these solutions.

The Rondo heat battery charges with electricity from renewable sources, stores it as heat in refractory bricks, and delivers steam on demand under any conditions, even above 100 bar, without combustion and without emissions. It can provide a continuous supply of steam, heat, and/or electricity 24 hours a day, replacing fossil fuel boilers or cogeneration systems.